Early in the legislative session, Rep. Henry Burns, R-Haughton, introduced
a bill to allow off-duty law enforcement officers to openly carry their service
weapons into bars.

During committee debate, the bill was amended to allow anyoneto
openly carry a gun into restaurants that serve alcohol, a change so drastic
that Burns wasn't sure he wanted to proceed with his own bill.

Burns' experience underscores the passionately pro-gun rights
environment that exists in Louisiana today. In Baton Rouge, as
concealed-carry permits and gun sales soar, Louisiana lawmakers are pushing in
the opposite direction from their peers in Colorado, Connecticut, New York and
Maryland.

Even as President Barack Obama works with
legislators in Washington to revive efforts to enact stricter federal gun
control legislation, local politicians have filed seven pro-gun bills in an
effort to pass even more permissive state gun laws.

By the numbers

The question is
whether further legislation is needed -- or even wanted -- in a state with the
strongest gun ownership rights and highest firearm death rates in the country.

One side effect of
the push by state politicians to be "pro-gun" is that the rush to approve such legislation
sometimes brings with it unintended consequences. Already, a constitutional
amendment passed overwhelmingly last year has resulted in lower court rulings
that felons in Louisiana can now carry guns, which contradicts current state
law.

Louisiana, like
more than half the country, is an open-carry state, allowing public possession
of a firearm almost anywhere without a permit. And as a "shall issue" state, law
enforcement officials are prohibited from denying a concealed carry permit
to any qualified applicant.

According to Louisiana State Police, East Baton Rouge
Parish has consistently ranked at the top of concealed handgun permits issued
since the program's inception in 1996. The parish is second only to Jefferson
Parish in all-time numbers -- 7,811 versus 6,848 -- but was No. 1 in 2012, with 1,037
permits issued in 2012.

The permit has always
been popular. But in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. school shooting,
and the promise of federal legislation in December, LSP saw a 211
percent increase in the number of permit applications. The numbers spiked from
1,200 a month in the last few months of 2012 to about 3,200 a month so far this
year.

Under current state
law, Louisiana also has no restrictions on so-called military-style "assault
weapons" or high-capacity magazines, and it does not impose a waiting period on
gun purchases or regulate junk guns, also known as "Saturday night specials."

For these reasons
and more, gun-control advocates such as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence have consistently ranked Louisiana at or near the bottom of gun
control scorecards. A recent study also linked the state's record-high gun death
rates -- 2.5 times
higher than the national average in 2010 -- with its permissive gun control
laws.

On the other side
of the political spectrum, the National Rifle Association has praised Gov.
Bobby Jindal for his pro-gun rights stance, including his support for
post-Katrina legislation to prohibit the confiscation of legally owned firearms
during natural disasters.

After endorsing the
governor for a second-term in 2011, an NRA official said, "when it comes to the Second Amendment,
no governor in the last four years has done more to protect our freedoms than
Bobby Jindal."

Dueling legislation

In addition to the
laws currently on the books, lawmakers have introduced seven bills this year to
make it easier or cheaper to buy, carry, or sell guns in Louisiana.

All seven bills sailed through the House committee; five passed on the House floor and headed
to the Senate side for further debate. Burns' bill was killed Tuesday. The last
two were scheduled for floor debate this week.

The bills fall into
three categories: 1) those seeking to block federal gun control legislation, 2)
those clarifying discrepancies in the concealed carry laws, and 3) those easing
restrictions on law enforcement.

The most widely
watched are the two bills that fall into the first category. House Bill 5 by
Oil City Republican Jim Morris and House
Bill 45 by Metairie Republican Joe Lopinto were written to block any
federal gun control legislation from taking effect in Louisiana.

But even as such
legislation seems doomed
to constitutional challenge, it's unlikely Morris and Lopinto will pull
their bills. More likely, both bills will pass and then open up the state to a potential
costly legal battle with the federal government.

Such a fight is
already starting in Kansas, where a bill almost identical to Morris' is being
challenged in court by Attorney General Eric Holder. Lopinto has already
admitted he has "$10,000 worth of student loans" that tell him his legislation,
like the Kansas law, is likely unconstitutional.

However, when asked
whether he was willing to open Louisiana -- currently facing a $3 billion budget
shortfall -- to a costly legal battle with the federal government, Morris said
yes, even "if we have to spend every dime."

A fundamental right

Morris and Lopinto
might be more in sync with state voters than is immediately obvious. While outside
polling seems to indicate support for stronger gun control laws in Louisiana,
most state legislators and a recent vote of the people on a constitutional
amendment say differently.

Two out-of-state polls
-- one completed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's group Mayors Against Illegal Guns and another by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling -- showed between 70 and 85 percent
of Louisianians favor universal background checks for gun buyers.

Defend Louisiana, a
pro-gun rights group started by Bossier City Republican state Rep. Jeff
Thompson, sent out a press release Friday blasting the PPP poll, saying the
numbers were distorted and the questions misleading.

Thompson said the
real measure of how Louisianians stand on gun control legislation is evidenced
by an amendment to the state's constitution that was passed last year.

The amendment,
which passed with 74.3 percent of the vote, made the right to bear arms a
fundamental one under state law and subject to "strict scrutiny" by the courts.

Thompson echoed
this sentiment Monday: "The best indication of where the will of the people is,
is to look at the vote of the people themselves," he said, calling the
difference between the PPP numbers and last year's amendment vote "stark."

The amendment has
already proven legally problematic, with the unintended consequence that some
felons have claimed current state law barring them from owning guns violates
the new amendment.

Two New Orleans judges
have issued contradictory
opinions in recent months
on the issue, which is likely to end up in the state Supreme Court. The
justices would then have to decide whether the state's rush to be the most
gun-lenient in the nation has made Louisiana a place where convicted felons can
also claim the unimpeded right to bear arms.